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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-03-05 BOS-min Page 1 of 6 SELECTMEN'S MEETING Tuesday, March 5, 2019 A meeting of the Lexington Board of Selectmen was called to order at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room of the Town Office Building. The Board went immediately into Executive Session with a roll call vote of 4-0 under Exemption 3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining related to the Public Works AFSCME Union; upon exiting Executive Session, the meeting returned to Open Session and a brief recess was called until 7:00 p.m. Present were Selectmen Ms. Barry, Chair; Mr. Pato; Mr. Lucente; Ms. Hai; and Mr. Sandeen. Also present were Mr. Malloy, Town Manager; Ms. Axtell, Assistant Town Manager; and Ms. Siebert, Recording Secretary. Ms. Barry extended her sincere thanks to the 17% of registered voters who turned out for the Town Election on Monday, March 4, 2019 under difficult weather conditions. She welcomed newly-elected Selectman Mark Sandeen to the Board and presented him with a Town of Lexington lapel pin. Ms. Barry also thanked Senior Management staff for their participation over the weekend in meetings and conference calls that determined the Town Election would not be postponed due to weather conditions. Selectmen Concerns and Liaison Reports Ms. Hai:  Ms. Hai expressed her appreciation for the Poll Workers who arrived at their posts during the worst part of the storm.  April is Fair Housing Month. The Human Rights Commission will provide fair housing training workshops for Town officials and Committee/Board chairs. A date has not yet been determined but Ms. Hai asked interested individuals to contact her.  “Overcoming Unconscious Bias” training is taking place this evening at the Cary Library. Ms. Barry:  Ms. Barry thanked the community for electing her to another three-year term on the Board of Selectmen.  A letter was received from Lexington’s sister city, Antony, France. The Town is putting together a delegation to visit Antony in September for its annual wine and cheese festival. Mr. Lucente:  Topics at the most recent Permanent Building Committee included: 1) Department of Environmental Protection approval to move ahead with Fire Station construction at 45 Bedford Street, following the discovery of contaminated soil; 2) a presentation by Don Mills, architect for the new Visitors Center that reported the access elevator has been approved by the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board plus the Historic Districts Committee approval for the Visitors Center project that is on target to be LEED Silver. Page 2 of 6 Visitor Center construction bids will be advertised on March 13. 2019 and a bidder tour scheduled for March 19, 2019. Construction will take place May 2019 to March 2020; 3) the architect for the Westview Cemetery operations building gave an update; 4) the PBC discussion of the Sustainable/Integrated Building Policy will continue at their 6 p.m. meeting on March 12. 2019. Mr. Sandeen:  Mr. Sandeen thanked the community for supporting his election to the Board. Town Managers Report  There have been some underground electrical issues in the Center. Eversource has confirmed that work needs to be done on underground conduits in the next few months. A representative from Eversource will meet on Friday, March 9, 2019 with DPW Director Dave Pinsonnault to go over the scope of work to be done prior to any commencement of the anticipated Center Streetscape project.  Governor Baker’s office has confirmed that the Town’s FY20 Chapter 90 funds amount to $975,165.  The Town intends to pause involvement with the Minuteman High School Athletic Fields project. Minuteman’s Request for Information has yielded 8 additional interested partners; therefore, the Town has elected to wait to re-evaluate until after Minuteman has completed vetting the interested parties process. Mr. Malloy will send letter to this effect to all stakeholders. Open Meeting Law Complaint Submitted by Jean Coulter Ms. Barry recused herself from the discussion as it involves the Lexington Police Department, where her husband is employed. Mr. Lucente served as Chair. The Open Meeting Law Complaint was filed on February 25, 2019 by Jean Coulter. The focus of Ms. Coulter’s complaint is her desire to speak at Town Meeting. Mr. Lucente noted that Town Meeting is one of the five exceptions to Open Meeting Law and, additionally, Ms. Coulter’s letter of complaint does not bear her signature. Lexington has nonetheless elected to respond and that response is due within 14 business days, although an extension is permitted. The Attorney General's Guidance permits the public body (Selectmen) to "delegate responsibility for responding to the complaint to Counsel: on the condition that the body "first meet to do so." Staff recommends having the matter delegated to Town Counsel by the Board of Selectmen to handle the response. Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board of Selectmen voted 4-0 to delegate responsibility to Town Counsel and Town Manager for responding to the Open Meeting Law Complaint filed on February 25, 2019 by Jean Coulter. Ms. Barry returned to the meeting. Page 3 of 6 2019 Annual Town Meeting  Update - Article 16 F - Automatic Meter Reading Mr. Malloy presented the financial element of the Automatic Meter Reading proposal (AMR), stating that the total cost of the project would be $5.94M from three funding sources: $1M from Enterprise Fund retained earnings; $1.5M from an MWRA zero percent interest loan; and $3.44M in Enterprise Fund debt. The 10-year debt, including 4% interest, would be amortized in FY2031. Toward the end of the debt timeline, annual debt service costs would decrease and rate subsidy fees might also decrease in tandem. Town staff has examined three fee types: a flat fee; a tiered fee, and a combination of flat and tiered fees. Staff favors the tiered rate because it bears the least impact on Low Rate users who are often senior citizens. The AMR program includes commercial accounts as well as residential. Mr. Pinsonnault recommended quarterly instead of semi-annual billing, a change that would improve cash flow for the Town. Automatic meters would also identify leaks in a more timely manner and support water conservation. Since 65% of meters are at least 10 years old, meters will need to be replaced, even if the AMR project is not approved by Town Meeting. Mr. Pinsonnault listed several other AMR benefits: meter reading staff would not have to enter private property or pits; there would be a more equitable distribution of MWRA use charges; staff could use time saved for other water/sewer work; meter tampering, malfunctioning meters, and reverse flow events would be more quickly detected via remote troubleshooting; customer/staff call time would be reduced; and, customers would have access to their account data online. Ms. Hai asked who would install the meters. Mr. Pinsonnault said a third party would probably do the replacements. Appointments would be made with homeowners and workers would enter homes to swap out the meters. Ms. Hai believes the cost of the project is high from a fiscal perspective, but noted that the project has other benefits. Of the three fee schedules, she prefers the tiered approach. Mr. Pato believes the value of AMR is equity and efficiency. He asked to see an analysis of how much the AMR project would cost over and above what it would cost to replace the 65% of meters that must be exchanged anyway. Mr. Pato supports embedding the cost of the meters in the rates. Ms. Barry supported the tiered rate structure. She also noted that the number and amount of abatements is something the community is generally unaware of. She asked Town staff to provide data about these abatements for Town Meeting and to break the information into categories of cause, such as meter malfunction. She asked about the timeline to replace the meters. Mr. Pinsonnault said he believes the work would be done in three phases due to volume. Ms. Barry asked how the data from the meter is communicated to the system. Margaret McCarthy, Weston and Sampson, said the data is communicated via radio signal. The meters have batteries but they do not emit noise; a signal is sent if the battery requires replacement. Page 4 of 6 Ms. Lucente said he is not yet comfortable about the cost of the project, although he agrees that the issues of abatement and cost over and above the current replacement program are both important considerations. He supports the tiered structure as presented. Mr. Sandeen agreed that the tiered fee schedule is preferred. He asked how long meter battery life is. Ms. McCarthy, Wesson and Sampson, said the battery warrantee is 15 years, about the same as the meter apparatus replacement cycle. Mr. Sandeen asked what the benefit would be of quarterly billing over semi-annual billing. Mr. Pinsonnault said that cash flow for the customer and for the Town are the benefits; the cost of doing quarterly billing is the cost of printing and mailing two additional invoices each year. Mr. Pinsonnault concurred that there would not be a dollar for dollar return on investment, but believes the list of intangible benefits is compelling. David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC), reported that CEC believes the equity aspect is more compelling than either the financial return on investment and/or the list of intangible benefits. The Committee would like data on “lost water”, or water use not attributable to any consumer account. Mr. Malloy said that the cost of the full project is considerable but he noted that this is largely due to the volume of meters to be replaced; each replacement cost is $411, inclusive of apparatus, labor, receivers, and software. David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee, said that commercial use and meter accuracy should be verified carefully. Mr. Sandeen asked for information about what would happen if radio technology evolves or if the reporting system stops working. Review and Approve Local Initiative Program (LIP) Application for Jefferson Drive Liz Rust, Regional Housing Services Office (RHSO), presented the details of the Local Initiative Program (LIP) Application for three affordable, deed-restricted units within the Jefferson Drive Special Permit Development off Grove Street. The LIP application requires that the Lexington Housing Partnership and the Board of Selectmen approve the initiative before it goes to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for approval. After approval by the DHCD, a regulatory agreement will be created and the units will be marketed under affordable housing lottery process. These units will join Lexington’s 30 other deed-restricted affordable units, yielding a 10% increase in this type of unit. Ms. Rust stated that she plays three roles in the transaction: the RHSO Director; the lottery agent of the Sudbury Housing Trust; and an employee of the developer. Ms. Rust has filed the appropriate disclosures with the Town Clerk. Jeri Foutter, Lexington Housing Partnership Chair, reported that the Partnership Board voted unanimously in favor of the LIP application. Betsy Weiss, Housing Partnership Vice Chair, clarified that one of the units will be in the general affordable housing pool while the other two would be Local Initiative, meaning that applicants who are residents, have children enrolled in Lexington Schools, or are employed by Lexington Municipal, School, or in the community are eligible to apply. Page 5 of 6 Marketing will be done through a comprehensive list of publications. Ms. Rust said that the affordable housing application and lottery process takes about 60 days, once DHCD has approved the units and the marketing period has elapsed. Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 to approve and authorize the Chair to sign the Local Initiative Program Application for a Comprehensive Permit for the Jefferson Drive development. Comprehensive Plan Update Carol Kowalski, Assistant Town Manager for Development; and Ruixi Yuan and Sarah Felton, co-Chairs of the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC), presented accomplishments to date of the ongoing Comprehensive Plan process. Several regional issues/trends panels with outside experts and three World Café events have been held. The CPAC has also established working groups to study specific subject areas such as Transportation/Housing/Economic Development; Historic/Natural Resources; and Open Space/Public Facilities. A Planning Board workshop was held and more will be scheduled. Ms. Kowalski said that turnout for the World Cafes and panel discussions has been encouraging. Subject areas with the highest level of participant interest are, in order, transportation; housing; public facilities including Schools; and economic development. Questions posed to participants of the World Cafes were: What do you value? On what areas has the Town made positive progress? What are your concerns? What should be prioritized? The three top priorities were: affordable housing; the Town Center; and walkability. Mr. Yuan noted that Lexington is an outlier in some of the regional trends, such as School enrollment, where it is one of only twelve communities experiencing growth. Upcoming presentations: Housing & Residential: March 21, 7:00 p.m.; Transportation: April 4, 7:00 p.m.; and Economic Development: April 23, 7:00 p.m. Ms. Kowaski said the Committee is looking at ways to broaden/continue engagement with the Comprehensive Plan process over the summer months by considering online participation portals. It also intends to coordinate with other ongoing initiatives like the Age-Friendly Community effort. The Comprehensive Plan update has been renamed “Lexington Next”. Richard Canale, Planning Board Chair, noted that the CPAC has exceeded expectations as an advisory committee. It was noted that the CPAC needs both a representative from Precinct 1 and a second liaison from the Board of Selectmen. 2019 Annual Town Meeting  Assignment of Articles to Selectmen The Board reviewed member article assignments.  Article Discussion; Article Positions; Consider Potential ATM Consent Agenda Articles Page 6 of 6 These topics will be more fully discussed at the next Board meeting on March 11, 2019.  Discuss Board Report to Town Meeting Topics to include in the Board report are updates regarding: the Special Permit Residential Development ad hoc Committee; Residential Exemption Policy Study Committee; Hartwell Avenue redevelopment; building projects; review of Selectmen Goals. Write-ups for the five topics, to be presented orally to Town Meeting, were assigned to Board members. The Chair will deliver the verbal reports. Word limit on the updates was discussed but no conclusion was reached. Adjourn Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board of Selection voted 5-0 to adjourn at 9:20 p.m. A true record; Attest: Kim Siebert, Recording Secretary